Following developments in road safety, autonomous driving and new mobility

Volkswagen’s self-driving electric Sedric concept is heading to production

Volkswagen confirmed at its annual media conference that it’s going to bring one of its most eccentric concepts to production – the all-electric Sedric shuttle, which is more tiny pod bus than car, will eventually actually get made, after its design is refined by one of the Volkswagen Group’s portfolio brands through a further development process.

That updated concept kit might indicate what VW intends to do with the Sedric as a production car – it’s well-suited to tackling problems that involve getting to and from a strictly bounded area not well served by any public transit option. This seems like a good candidate to answer autonomous fleet services planned by automaker rivals including GM and Ford, for instance.

When the Sedric was first unveiled, it was billed as Volkswagen’s first ever Level 5 autonomous car (The name “Sedric” is derived from “SElf-DRIving Car”). It was also a cross-band concept, meant to be owned by the Group itself rather than any individual Volkswagen consumer or commercial brand. But basically it’s a blank slate, and it’ll be very interesting to see how VW targets its first potential deployment.